If you’re young and fit - or relatively so, at least - and enjoy a challenge to your body and brain at the same time, the growing sport of bouldering might be for you.

For those who haven’t seen it, bouldering is a climbing sport in which competitors scale a vertical wall by using strategically-placed handholds of various shapes.

In actual competition, the paths up the wall are numbered and graded according to difficulty. Competitors must complete as many challenges as possible within a certain length of time, and the one with the most points wins.

According to Adam Conner, a West Kings teacher who coaches a team at the school, it’s not as easy as it looks. While strength and agility are certainly useful, speed is not necessarily an asset.

“It’s like organized chaos,” Conner says. “It’s great physical activity, but it also requires problem-solving skills and creative thinking – and although it’s an individual activity, there are definitely teamwork aspects to it as well.”

Each challenge, Conner points out, “is an individual problem,” which usually requires some thought beforehand before starting your climb.

Participants are encouraged to give it some serious thought first, and even take notes if it helps.

Conner noted that West Kings has one of just two school bouldering clubs in the Valley – the other one is at AWEC in Annapolis Royal.

“We’ve had the wall for about five years, but the club itself only started in September,” he added.

A Feb. 23 competition, which included students from both AWEC and West Kings, featured 30 qualifying problems and eight final problems, four for boys and four for girls.

Patrick Fanning checks out the wall before the start of competition. Fanning was one of the participants at a bouldering competition held at West Kings on Feb. 23. – John DeCoste, www.kingscountynews.ca